“Papa got it back for me,” said Maggie.
“Yes,” said Bessie; “and I was with papa when he asked Mr. Temple for it; and I was sorry for Mr. Temple, even though he did tease you so, Maggie.”
“Why, papa didn’t scold him, did he?” asked Maggie.
“No,” answered Bessie; “he only said, ‘Mr. Temple, may I trouble you for that paper belonging to my little girl;’ but he mannered him, and I wouldn’t like papa to have such a manner to me, and Mr. Temple looked ashamed. He is a very unpleasant gentleman; but I was sorry for him.”
“But where is the picture?” asked Colonel Rush.
“Here,” said Bessie, and in her turn she produced a paper from her pocket and unfolded it before the Colonel’s eyes. “It is Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden,” she went on to say: “here they are, and there is the tree with the serpent on it, and there is another with birds and squir’ls on it. The squir’ls are eating nuts, and the birds are pecking peaches, and they are having a nice time.”
“This is very interesting,” said the Colonel, not thinking it necessary to tell her that peaches and nuts did not usually grow on the same tree; “and what is this in the corner, Bessie?”
“That is the bower they made for a home to live in,” said Bessie; “and there is Adam’s wheelbarrow and Eve’s watering-pot. I s’pose she helped Adam take care of the garden: don’t you, sir?”
“And this?” asked the Colonel, pointing to another object which he had vainly been endeavoring to make out. “It is a pigeon house, I think.”
“Oh, no, sir!” said Bessie, rather mortified. “It is a flag, the flag of England. I was going to put the ’merican flag: but I thought it would be more a compliment to you to put your own country’s; and so I did. There’s the lion;” and she pointed out something which looked rather more like a spider than a lion; feeling the while, poor little soul, rather hurt that her compliment had not been appreciated without explanation.